Delaying Gratification

What have you done lately that your
future self will thank you for?
This is a brief post on the subject of
delaying gratification and the benefits
this hard-earned attribute brings to
your life.
So what was your answer to the above
question? Perhaps it’s lots of things;
perhaps it’s a few things; perhaps it’s
nothing. I know I fall somewhere in that
middle section.
Delaying gratification is when you
sacrifice your short-term pleasure to
somehow benefit yourself in the future.
I have struggled with this personally and
have always been impulsive, sometimes
recklessly, and sought immediate
gratification from my actions.
For example; I’ve never been a saver;
my money comes in one hand and flies
out of the other so fast it gives me
friction burns. This means I prefer the
short-term pleasure of spending over
the long-term pleasure and benefits of
saving. Saving money is a great example
of delaying gratification and allows us
to see clearly in our mind what benefit
it will bring us in the future. The
struggle comes when you try to reason
with yourself as to what matters more –
now or then. For me, it was always now.
The problem with that is that when
tomorrow became the new ‘now’ I would
be frustrated with my actions, or
inactions, of yesterday.
I found that occasionally asking myself
the aforementioned question phrased
the concept in a way that I could
empathise with. It reminded me of that
feeling I got when I wished I had done
something a week, a month or a year
earlier and could be reaping the
benefits now.
‘From little acorns, mighty oaks do
grow.’
- American Proverb
To continue the example of saving, it
doesn’t have to be a large sum of cash
that you put away just something small
that you know you’ll be grateful for in
the future. We can apply this to any of
our long-term goals, and frankly, we
need to if we hope to ever see them
materialise. For me, lately, I’ve been
working really hard on my fiction, every
day in fact. Yes, I enjoy it, but after a
full day at work, spending a couple of
hours writing or editing or revising can
be really hard work, but I know that in
a couple of months, when my current
project is finished, I’ll be really pleased
that I put all the extra time into it.
So ask yourself the question. See if it
brings anything to mind that you know
you will be grateful for in the future,
and go do it. Think of what you want to
achieve; break it down into smaller
goals; break those down into steps;
choose one of those steps and act on it
today. Eventually, they will add up and
you will fill your future with
gratification, where there might have
stood regret.
Thanks,